With more than 20 years of existence, the Nissan Dealer Foundation has managed to impact the education of thousands of children who live in marginalized and high-risk areas, with the vision of not only placing vehicles on the national market but also giving back part of its success to society.
Nissan allocates a certain percentage of the sale of each vehicle to the construction of primary schools around the country . To date, the Nissan Dealer Foundation has built 115 schools throughout Mexico that support 55,000 students a year and more than 200 teachers.
“The schools are built and donated to the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) . Once the agency takes over the facilities, it allocates the curriculum and the capacity to meet the needs of the students,” Georgina Pons Cano, advisor to the Nissan Dealers Foundation, explained in an interview with T21.
Each school is built thanks to the initiative of distributors from each region who raise their hand to start the process and approach local authorities, who have shown interest in the project. According to the Foundation’s advisor, the authorities, mainly state and municipal, have adopted the projects in a positive way.
“In coordination with the governments, we review the locations where the primary school can be built, the authority makes the pertinent paperwork with the SEP and once everything is correct, they give us the land. The schools we build include six classrooms, a multipurpose room, bathrooms, a patio, a warehouse and an office area. The materials guarantee high durability and low maintenance,” Pons Cano commented.
The Nissan Dealer Foundation is supported by more than 50 Nissan dealers that are part of the Mexican Nissan Dealer Association. “Since the foundation was established, the focus was to support education in Mexico and not just for a period of time, but we wanted something that would last and really have an impact on the community,” shared the advisor.
The Nissan Dealer Foundation’s goals for 2024 are to complete the construction of six schools in Tlaxcala, Colima, Tecate, Zapopan, Oaxaca and Guanajuato, in addition to remodeling four schools . “Among the initiatives we also have is the remodeling of some of the first schools we built so that they are 100% operational,” Pons said.
Pons Cano said that the Nissan dealer network is committed to its communities. “When a person buys a Nissan vehicle, they are supporting the education of children, who are the most valuable thing we have,” he said.
